MWC 2017 – Sony Xperia XZ Premium review

Mobile World Congress 2017 has kicked off with a brand new flaghip smartphone from Sony. The Xperia XZ Premium is a high-end phone with a large, 5.5-inch display and some incredible camera features.

The XZ Premium is a rich, metal smartphone with durable Gorilla Glass 5 protection around its front and back. To the right of the display sits a fingerprint scanner and power button combo, meaning your phone, files and data are biometrically protected.

With its 4K HDR display, Sony is bringing world-first technology to smartphones. The company claims this offers around four times as many pixels as most 1080p phone screens. This doesn’t just make the XZ Premium the sharpest smartphone around, it also makes sure everything from pictures to PowerPoints look vibrant.

Exceptional slo-mo camera

A new and improved 19-megapixel camera sits around the back of the XZ Premium. This takes crisp still images with plenty of detail, while also shooting dramatic slow-motion video at 960 frames per second.

Sony says it uses a three-layer sensor which packs in 1GB of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), which lets it store a rapid burst of video data. That’s only capture 0.18 seconds of footage, but that translates to six seconds of video of slo-mo video playback. Whether recording for a pitch video or just having fun, this level of slow-motion is another world-first for Sony.

Adaptive charging allows the XZ Premium to adapt to your charging habits, slow charge through the night for example, so you’re ready for the morning, but putting less strain on the battery, which Sony reckons this can extend your battery life.

64GB of storage means the flagship smartphone also has plenty of room for all your files, and running Android, it supports Microsoft Office 365 with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and other major business app suites.